Hewlett Packard has secured a major education win thanks to Probrands IT procurement reseller solution, theitindex.co.uk/gov.

By integrating with theitindex.co.uk/gov, HP demonstrated a best value offer on its superior education platform to Coventry Councils Woodway Park school, saving the school over 35% on a high configuration high volume five figure order.

Woodway Park also undertook a longer term best practice pilot of theitindex.co.uk/gov, which saved 10% of the schools IT budget and four working days a month in time.

theitindex.co.uk/gov is an online IT procurement tool that daily updates a list of more than 100,000 products from more than 1200 vendors by best price and availability. As a result, the solution brings brands together in one impartial purchasing environment, which enabled the school to find the best value deal on the day.

HPs Lee Knott, said: theitindex.co.uk/gov enabled us to demonstrate that we offered a best-fit platform for the education environment, at the best price and availability. The solution simplified and streamlined the whole purchasing process.

Buyers are being attracted to this powerful technology combined with personalised customer relationship management, which instills a leading edge procurement process for best value IT. This is surely a key part of meeting the demands of the modern buyer, particularly customers like Woodway Park, which are driven by a combination of price and availability.

As a reseller solution, theitindex.co.uk/gov is uniquely offering the channel a one-stop-shop enabling vendors and distributors to gain market intelligence, consider trends and compete on a level playing field within a daily updated desktop environment.

Operating in a secure on-line environment, the solution delivers procurement efficiencies, saving time and money, so adding value to the bottom line. The savings enable organisations to stretch the reach of their IT budgets.

Woodway Park School has been able to buy more for the same budget and smash the DFES PC:pupil ratio of 2:1, so delivering better, faster technology education to its pupils.

After implementing theitindex.co.uk/gov, Woodway Park Resources Manager Deborah Brown said: "It is saving us in excess of an hour per order, which would otherwise be spent liaising with suppliers. This equates to four working days a month that are better spent on other key tasks.

An example. Much of our system is Dell based, but the solution demonstrated to us that HP provided a better cost, availability and specification match. We were then able to discuss the finer details of this order with our account manager at Probrand. We saved over 35% on this order alone. Result!

We have been so impressed with the overall solution to our IT procurement headaches that we have started to convert all our printers to HP as well.

Kristian Smith, Strategic Procurement Officer at Coventry Council, added:The solution matches the needs of the challenging education environment. It has improved the financial, labour and management efficiency of the school's ICT expenditure."

Woodway Park School is now being hailed as the savings benchmark that other Coventry Council schools and the broader education sector should aim for.

Headmaster, Steve Allen, adds: This truly is a best practice purchasing tool that has demonstrated that great deals do exist outside of Dell.

Based on the benefits we have enjoyed in such a short space of time, the solution has the potential to save the education sector around 70M on its annual IT spend [c.700M] and as a result we are keen to share our experiences with other leading schools in the region.

Put simply, it is helping us provide our pupils with a better education.

Probrands Group Head of New Business, Stephen Bushell, added: Having already demonstrated the solutions power in a number of exemplary schools such as Bradford Grammar, Haberdashers Askes Boys School and now Woodway Park, theitindex.co.uk/gov is proven to help public sector organisations return a minimum of 10% on their IT budgets.

When applied to the education sectors IT budget, this level of savings could have considerable impact as it equates to over 280,000 PCs that could be used to improve the UKs PC:pupil ratio. Alternatively, such fiscal savings could be used to train teachers on tomorrows technology to further speed up its implementation, so improving technology education in schools.

No longer does the debate focus solely on getting computers for schools, it now rests on delivering the very best IT into the classroom in the shortest possible time and for the best price. This has shot to the top of the agenda in education establishments.

The solution is here and now, tested, trialed and proven! It is for the education and public sectors to seize the initiative for best practice best value IT procurement.

About Probrand

Established in 1992, Probrand is a major supplier of top branded computer products - ranging from a floppy disk to a fully implemented network. Located in the heart of Birmingham, and employing more than 50 people, Probrand is a multi million pound corporation servicing a wide range of business customers throughout the UK. The IT Index is an online trading hub and gathers prices and stock availability for more than 100,000 product lines from more than 1200 vendors and conducts price and availability comparisons on a daily basis. The IT Index system then presents the most competitive price with stock availability on a customers Private Procurement Hub. This gives Probrand's customers who are signed up to The IT Index a bespoke catalogue of the IT products they use.

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